Andrew Warr: February 2012

So straight on to the next race! After the trip to Capetown last weekend I travelled back home to get ready for the 1st of 3 Momentum uci cat 2 xc races. Training has gone pretty good the past 2 weeks and my body has responded well to the higher intensity and I came out of the week confident I will be in better shape for the weekend. I'm also becoming more adapt to the Volcan xc 29 hardtail as it handles so differently to a 26 inch bike. It is incredibly light around 8.9 kg and rolls so fast that it allows me to save energy when I need to. I'm really happy this machine.

On thursday afternoon I went to ride a few laps of the course 5.6km lap with I think around 130m of climbing a lap, so not brutal but tough enough. Conditions were dry and hot the ground very loose over hard pack trail that made slowing down on the decents tough, so speed control was vital going into the turns. The climbs at giba suit me well and having local knowledge of the trails helped alot. Some of my favourite sections of the park were included in the race.

Friday morning early I did some final preparation out on the road luckily I had just finished my session when the rain that had been forcasted arrived for the weekend. That afternoon we returned to the venue to register and ride 2 laps of the course. Riding in full on wet conditions was good as it allowed me to prepair mentally for what we could be expecting on race day.

Race day morning and I woke up to rain which I was super comfortable with but it was still a while till the start of the race at 12h30. I had a good early breakfast, my dad afforded me some down time by taking on the mechanic roll (which he is world class at!) and did some final tuning on the Volcan to help in the muddy conditions. At 10 I had another meal to load up for the race and slotted a double espresso an hour before by now the rain had diffenitley settled in for the day.

The competition on the day was solid, last weekends 2nd and 3rd place riders were on the line as well as SA's number 1 and 2 ranked u23's. A couple of riders from the UK were also lined up.

going in the the first lap I was a bit down the field in 8th, something I need to develop over the next few weeks but I could feel I had better legs already I kept consistant and worked my way up the field I was decending really well in the mud and had good power on the climbs and this helped me seperate my self from the chasers. A the end of 7 laps I crossed the line 4th overall and 2nd elite my best performance to date I'd have to say and one that gives me confidence as I don't feel I'm near my best yet.

staying hydrated

mud

more mud

Thanks to all my sponsors, friends, folks and kzn mountainbiking for putting together a great event.

Elite men

Phillip Buys (Contego-Giant)
Andrew Warr (World of Sport)
Mark Bassingthwaight (Namibia-Merida)

Pro-Elite

Phillip Buys (Contego-Giant)
Rourke Croeser (Orange Monkey-Cannondale) u23
James Reid (360life) u23
Andrew Warr (World of Sport)
Ben Roff (Orange Monkey-Cannondale) u23

podium

Wright so race season has officially got underway and so far things have been a little rough around the edges but there is allot of room for improvement and more speed to come from these legs over the next few weeks.

XCOSA series Fountains-Pretoria

The race season kicked off 2 weekends ago in Pretoria for the 1st round of the XCOSA.CO.ZA series. Travelling up with the team as a unit was really cool as most of last year I travelled on my own. On arrival in Pretoria the first thing we did was check in to our accommodation we then took a ride through to the race venue to do some laps on the track. Fountains xc circuits are known for being pretty rocky and technical but the organisers decided they were going to stick to a less challenging layout in order to gain the interest of xc racing by making the lap suitable for almost any level of rider. The lap was 5.6km with 30m of vertical climbing. A flat course never makes things any easier all it means is you peddaling hard almost the entire time.

The compitition was solid on the day and having most of the top ranked xc racers we got could give everyone a fair idea of where there level is at.

I honestly did'nt know what to expect. I had not even started doing short and sharp high intensity work on the bike yet and knew I was not 100 percent up to full speed and opened up but my overall physical condition is the best I've ever been in. Starting the race I was in the lead group but I put myself in the red zone to early, Burry Stander and Phillip Buys were impressive the other competitors also had good speed
but they got unlucky with punctures this saw me move up to 3rd. I held this until about 2 and a half laps to go but I sarted to fade off the pace as fatigue set in, Brendan Davids and Louis Bresler Knipe rode me in and I could just try and limit my loses and hung on for 5th and a finish.

I took allot out of this race and identified some things that need work..its what love about this sport your always learning and always looking for that edge!

Burry Stander (Specialized Factory Racing)
Phillip Buys (Contego-Giant)
Louis Bresler Knipe (Contego-Giant)
Brendan Davids (Specialized-Sho Air)
Andrew Warr (World of Sport)
James Reid (360 Life)

With a 2 weeks until the next race there was time to build on what took from Pretoria and going into the week leading up to the first national I felt ready and understood my current strengths and weaknesses alot better.

SA XC CUP Round 1 Durbanville-Capetown

We flew into Cape town thursday late morning assembled our bikes at our home for the weekend in Constancia and did light ride that afternoon to get the flight out the legs. Our hosts for the weekend Liezelle and Jonathan Parton were awesome and really made it feel like a home away from home.

Transport

Friday morning we drove out to the venue about a 40min drive from Constantia to Durbanville with no traffic. Conditions were very dry, the lap had some solid climbing and loose terain. After riding and learning the track I was able to get an idea of consistent lap time to peg on race day.

Volcan ready to go

With this being the first National of the year the level of competition is high and being an olympic year certain riders are out to prove a point. We had a combined start with elites and u23's together. I had a shocking start off the line battling to get my shoe into the pedal saw me mid packing it down the start straight from a second row start. While funneling down into the first narrow section I got pushed wide and had a silly collision with some bushes off the path I went down got up had to align my stem as it shifted on impact. I lost alot of time and was now in last position down maybe 30-40 sec already with in 500m. I was like 'this is how it is-nothing you can do but push on' giving up is not an option here!

I took it lap by lap I focused on being as consistant as possible and concentrating till the finish. I worked up to 8th position in the elite men cat and 12th overall. Not the result I was after but I'm satisfied with how I handled the situation and carried on fighting till the finish, yesterdays ride gave me great motivation for the upcoming races.

Elite Men